Pre-registrations, hardware, and space
Jonathan Oxer
It looks like we're going to have a problem with over-popularity at the
Arduino Miniconf, so we'll need to do some fast work to make sure things
run smoothly on the day and nobody gets upset. I asked the LCA
organisers about the capacity of the room assigned to us, and this is
the response:
* In a classroom layout (where there are thin trestle tables between the
rows of seats facing a screen at the front of the room) approximately 55
people seated can fit in the room, more with standing room.
* In a banquet layout (where there are round tables of 10 people to a
table, where some of the seats will have their backs to the screen)
approximately 60 people seated.
* There is another option of theatre layout (where there are only rows
of seats, no tables all facing a screen at the front of the room) which
seats approximately 80 people.
Because we need to do a switch mid-way through proceedings from hands-on
hardware sessions to more traditional presentations it will probably
work best in the classroom layout, which puts us at 55 people plus
standing room. But even with simple rows of chairs and no tables we'll
be limited to 80 so that's a hard upper limit.
I then asked how many people ticked the "Arduino Miniconf" box on their
LCA registration form. Answer: 119, so far. That number will continue to
rise as more people register.
Oops.
Another thing to factor into this is pre-purchase of hardware, such as
Pebble kits for people doing the hardware assembly session plus other
items they'll need including soldering irons and cutters. I've ordered
100 Pebble PCBs from PCBcart that should arrive before long, and Andy
has been working up the numbers for ordering batches of parts to make
kits. Obviously that means we're fronting up cash already in the
expectation that we'll get it back when attendees pay for kits to use at
the miniconf. Andy and I need to walk the tightrope of ordering enough
stuff to cover everyone who needs it, while not over-ordering and being
out of pocket.
The upshot of these two factors is that we need to come up with a way to
manage attendance at the miniconf. We're going to need people to go
through some kind of pre-registration process before getting to LCA so
we know how much hardware to bring, and it may put us in the unfortunate
position of requiring door-police with an attendee list to prevent other
people coming in to the miniconf - at least for the first part of the
day when it's going to be hardware assembly. It would be bad if people
pre-register, pay for a kit, and then arrive to find there's no seat
available for them because some other random person who just wanted to
watch got there 1 minute earlier and sat down.
I'd appreciate comments on all this but my opinion is that we need to do
something like the following.
1. Decide on a limit of 55 people plus speakers / helpers, who will have
to stand or sit at the ends of tables. This will get us the most people
in the room possible for the hardware assembly part of the day.
2. Identify people who could act as helpers, ie: more experienced people
who don't want to build their own Pebble but can help show others how to
do soldering etc on the day.
3. Set up a pre-registration system, such as an online form with
checkboxes for items such as "require Pebble kit" (and options for none,
partial, and full pre-assembly) so we know how much hardware to bring.
4. Make the pre-registration requirement known through the attendees
mailing list, noting a "first come, first served" policy and cutting it
off at 55 people. Perhaps the main LCA organisers could note it in one
of their update emails too.
5. Generate an attendee list including both regular attendees (the 55
people) plus helpers / speakers.
6. Notify those who made the list, and put others on a waiting list in
case of dropouts.
7. Assign people to "door control", checking that only people on the
attendee list with a pre-purchased Pebble make it into the room for the
hardware assembly part of the day.
8. Allow as many people as can squash into the room for the after-lunch
part, which will be more traditional presentations from the front of the
room rather than hardware assembly.
Sound reasonable?
Oh yeah, and handling 55 individual people all doing their own assembly
would probably be too much. Too many soldering irons, for one thing! We
will almost certainly need to pair people up. But that complicates the
timing: if 1 beginner with 1 soldering iron can build 1 board in 1.5
hours (hypothetical), can 2 beginners with 1 soldering iron who are
helping each other build 2 boards in 1.5 hours? Not likely.
Cheers :-)
--
Jonathan Oxer
Ph +61 4 3851 6600
Practical Arduino <www.practicalarduino.com>
SuperHouse Automation <www.superhouse.tv>
Geek My Ride! <www.geekmyride.org>
Trent Lloyd
My important input is that at every past LCA where pre-preparation has been provided for, I have almost always missed any kind of announcement for it... and then been very disappointed later.
I recommend the LCA organisers send a specific mass mail-out, at the very least to those that clicked Arduino.
Best Regards,
Trent
Jonathan Oxer
> My important input is that at every past LCA where pre-preparation has
> been provided for, I have almost always missed any kind of
> announcement for it... and then been very disappointed later.
I'm on the receiving end of that problem (as the organiser) every single
year for the keysigning, where despite every effort to shout about it on
mailing lists etc there are always people who turn up and get angry that
they didn't know they had to submit their public key by the week before
LCA. So yes, I agree entirely that it's a big problem we'll face.
> I recommend the LCA organisers send a specific mass mail-out, at the
> very least to those that clicked Arduino.
I'll definitely try to get that done, but before asking the LCA
organisers we need some things in place at our end.
Luke Weston
haven't actually had it explicitly explained to them what the idea of
the miniconf is, that the intention is that you buy this kit and build
this thing on the day, have they?
If that's explained, then maybe (hopefully?) the number of people
actually committing to this will be less?
Andy Gelme
After a few quick phone calls ... !
Contained below are some "numbers" that we are currently running with.
Of course, it's very hard to predict ahead of time, just how many people
will be willing to part with their hard earned cash. That's balanced
against how much financial risk we think we can carry up-front. Getting
a pre-registration form will turn the theoretical numbers into hard numbers.
Jonathan Oxer wrote:
> It looks like we're going to have a problem with over-popularity
hardware costs of Arduino + Pebble, for those wanting to build hardware
and code software ... versus those who'll just be spectators.
> We'll need to do some fast work to make sure things run smoothly
Sounds like getting a pre-registration form (with up-front payment)
on-line a.s.a.p would be good. Along with some reasonable feedback
about the attendees prior experience with soldering irons, etc.
The pre-registration form should highlight the unique features of the
Pebble board for the LCA mini-conf (compared to other Arduino shields)
... with some photos (I've got a pretty blue-LCD Pebble in front of me
now ... it does look good).
And, hopefully, the LCA committee will forward an email describing the
special nature of the Arduino mini-conf.
People could then tick ...
[ ] Arduino Duemilanove AUS$36 (current price at Little Bird)
[ ] Pebble shield AUS$45 (partial assembly) or AUS$55 (fully assembled)
[ ] 2 x ZigBee 2 mW module AUS$52 (current price at SparkFun) for
mesh-networking
[ ] USB cable AUS$??
To encourage people to pre-register and pre-pay, those would be
discounted prices (compared to just picking them up at LCA without
pre-registration). Note: Can't claim to have had this idea myself ...
it came out of one of the phone conversations.
> * In a classroom layout (where there are thin trestle tables between the
> rows of seats facing a screen at the front of the room) approximately 55
> people seated can fit in the room, more with standing room.
>
partially assembled board ... plus another 25 people wishing to purchase
fully assembled boards (either ahead of time, or at the LCA) ...
I've asked Mitch to bump the Pebble parts order to be 60. This means
roughly ... 45 for LCA and 15 for CCHS and others, e.g on this email list.
Asking people to be serious about pre-payment will whittle the numbers
down from 119.
I believe that committing to support 20 people (plus 20 sets of gear,
e.g. soldering irons) is something that we can contemplate. Much more
than that ... will be just too tricky.
Having the rest be fully assembled boards, means that we can cater for a
higher number of attendees (with hardware for later presentations).
And, we can always have those people who didn't buy an Arduino / Pebble
pair-up with someone who did.
> Another thing to factor into this is pre-purchase of hardware, such as
> Pebble kits for people doing the hardware assembly session plus other
> items they'll need including soldering irons and cutters. I've ordered
> 100 Pebble PCBs from PCBcart that should arrive before long, and Andy
> has been working up the numbers for ordering batches of parts to make
> kits.
pre-assembly working bee.
> It would be bad if people
> pre-register, pay for a kit, and then arrive to find there's no seat
> available for them because some other random person who just wanted to
> watch got there 1 minute earlier and sat down.
>
their name on the "assembly instructions" sheets on the desk in front of
their seat.
> 1. Decide on a limit of 55 people plus speakers / helpers, who will have
> to stand or sit at the ends of tables. This will get us the most people
> in the room possible for the hardware assembly part of the day.
>
be spectators.
> 3. Set up a pre-registration system, such as an online form with
> checkboxes for items such as "require Pebble kit" (and options for none,
> partial, and full pre-assembly) so we know how much hardware to bring.
>
to arrive.
> 7. Assign people to "door control", checking that only people on the
> attendee list with a pre-purchased Pebble make it into the room for the
> hardware assembly part of the day.
>
> Oh yeah, and handling 55 individual people all doing their own assembly
> would probably be too much. Too many soldering irons, for one thing!
could pair-up and sit next to them.
25 pre-assembled boards for those who don't want to do it on the day
(pre-payment means they'd get a guaranteed seat next to someone assembling).
I'm guessing that we won't get more than 45 sales ... but, happy to be
proved wrong.
--
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--O -- http://www.geekscape.org --
OOO -- an...@geekscape.org -- http://twitter.com/geekscape --
Francois
> I then asked how many people ticked the "Arduino Miniconf" box on their
> LCA registration form. Answer: 119, so far. That number will continue to
> rise as more people register.
there to use as a a rough indication of how popular a given Miniconf
is compared to the other ones. At that stage, I would imagine that a
good chunk of registrants have not even read any of the Miniconf
abstracts.
I don't think you'll have 120 people showing up for the Miniconf and
certainly not 120 people wanting to spend the whole day there. So I
think that it's quite reasonable for you to limit the number of
attendees to 55.
In terms of publicizing the group purchase, we can post a small note
on the LCA2010 RSS feed and announce list to tell people that they
need to register separately with you guys if they want to buy a kit.
Cheers,
Francois